Rakta Charitra () is a 2010 Indian political action thriller film based on the life of Paritala Ravindra. The film was directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Prashant Pandey. Shot simultaneously in Telugu and Hindi with the latter titled Rakht Charitra, the film stars Vivek Oberoi as Pratap Ravi, while Radhika Apte, Sudeep, Shatrughan Sinha, Abhimanyu Singh, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Sushant Singh play supporting roles. The film marks Oberoi's acting debut in Telugu cinema. A sequel to the film, Rakta Charitra 2 (2010), was released later that year.
The film met with huge critical acclaim from critics praising screenplay, story, direction, cinematography, dialogues & realistic approach. Oberoi’s portrayal of Paritala Ravi was deemed one of the best performances in his filmography by the critics and audiences.
Plot
Nalla Narasimha Reddy (Kitty), a local politician, is a powerful man in the area. His close associate, Gajula Veerabhadra (Rajendra Gupta), is his trustworthy ally for his political work, to the extent that Narasimha Reddy gives him the freedom to contest Jilla Parishad polls with his men. Veerabhadra champions the causes of the poor and oppressed, and they look up to him like their leader.
Nagamani Reddy (Kota Srinivasa Rao), who is the local MLA of the district and close to Narasimha Reddy, becomes jealous of the budding trust between Veerabhadra and Narasimha Reddy, and starts poisoning Narasimha Reddy against Veerabhadra. Narasimha Reddy summons Veerabhadra and asks him not to contest the polls with his contestants, but rather support Nagamani Reddy's. Veerabhadra lashes out at Narasimha Reddy for being unfair to the underprivileged communities and storms out. Nagamani Reddy calls for Mandha, a close follower of Veerabhadra, and manipulates him into killing Veerabhadra, giving him the assurance that if he does it, people will suspect the policies of Veerabhadra as his own follower killed him and he will be the next in line as the leader of the poor people, else take his life. Mandha reluctantly agrees to it. Veerabhadra and his wife Gajula Jayalakshmi (Zarina Wahab) travel in a bus with 40 people to a wedding. Mandha and Nagamani Reddy's men stop the bus, kill Veerabhadra's guards, and tell him to step out of the bus or else he will be killed along with the other innocents on the bus. Veerabhadra comes out, looking at Mandha, and dares him to kill. Nagamani Reddy's henchman Durga (Chetanya Adib) shoots at Veerabhadra, making it look like Mandha shot at him; prompting Mandha about the deal he made with Nagamani Reddy, he tells him to kill him in front of everyone. Manda then kills Veerabhadra by crushing his skull with a boulder.
This results in an agitation led by Thota Shankar Ravi (Sushant Singh), who wants to avenge his father's murder by killing all the men of Nagamani Reddy and Narasimha Reddy. Enters Nagamani Reddy's son Bukka Reddy (Abhimanyu Singh), a ruthless man who enjoys raping women and killing men in brutal ways. He starts killing Shankar's men in gory ways: drilling a hole into their skull, chopping off their heads with a sugarcane chopper, burning them alive, and feeding them to ravenous rats.
Pratap Ravi (Vivek Oberoi), who is in college in the city of Anantapur, gets the news of his father's murder and rushes to the village. Nagamani Reddy orders the local police inspector to kill Shankar in a fake encounter. When Pratap Ravi goes to the police station to ask about his brother, the inspector shows him Shankar's dead body and mocks him. Infuriated with his brother's murder, Pratap Ravi and Veerabhadra's men kill all the police officers and the inspector.
Pratap Ravi hides in the jungle with his father's associates and vows to kill Narsimha Reddy, Nagamani Reddy, and Mandha one by one, instilling fear of death in each one of them. He starts by busting into the house of Narasimha Reddy, killing his guards and finally killing him with a scythe in front of his wife as she looks on in horror. Next is Mandha; as he roams in the market, Pratap Ravi's men follow him, and before he can defend himself, they chop his hand off. Manda begs for his life, but Pratap Ravi stabs him in front of everyone. They plan to kill Nagamani Reddy, but they are cautious as there is heavy police security in his house. As Nagamani Reddy is sitting on his lawn conversing with a police officer, he is shot at by Pratap Ravi, who is dressed as the cop, and his men, dressed as cops as well, kill most of the policemen.